Blog Post #4: What is the probability you will escape?

 Hello and welcome to blog post #4! 

              Today in our class we had a presentation for college preparation courses. I will reflect on one of the activities that really stood out for me for the course MBF3C: the Data Management strand. The activity was an escape room! It has been one of the most exciting activities I have ever done in my educational career thus far! The presentation was for a college preparation course, however, the escape box/room could be altered to any mathematics course and even could be used in other courses such as science, history or English! Once we walked into the classroom, the room was set up with problems on the whiteboards, keys stuck to the walls and a line of these escape boxes with multiple locks (shown below). An escape room, also known as an "escape game", is a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategy to complete the objectives at hand. Everyone came in and we were so excited to wonder what was going on, and were motivated, intrigued and enthusiastic for the class! In terms of the curriculum expectations that were covered in the activity we did, was the probability strand. Therefore, all of the questions and such altered towards a “unit review” or “exam review” as this type of activity would be an excellent way to showcase your understanding in a fun, very engaging way! 

           The leader of the activity, separated us into groups and everyone received their own box. The picture shown below, is an example of what was written on the whiteboard. This was also the "end" goal of the escape box tool kit, and we did not know what the "question" was for that set of data. I also noticed that there was a "prize" for each group, therefore there was not a competition for who can solve the problems the fastest, it was everyone's own individual game and everyone got a prize in the end. We got stuck on a step and I asked another team to come over and help, and using collaboration helped figure out our problem. I found this activity an extremely innovative way to engage the class in reviewing important curriculum material while having fun with math at the same time!

              The following photos are examples of what the tool kit looked like inside. There was the small addition of using engaging materials such as a UV light (shown below) and a deck of cards that supplemented the "euchre" question. The yellow sheet below, was also a task I was intrigued by as the path of the "correct" answers, was the way to open the first padlock. For example, the answers are as followed (1/6, 80%, False, 3/13) = (right, down, right, up) which was the sequence to open the lock. Not only are you solving problems, but you also need to think outside the box on the patterns and visual cues that are given for each problem. Another example, are the colour coated set of numbers (shown below) which match to MEAN, MEDIAN and MODE (which were also colour coated) and you needed to find the mean, median and mode of the appropriate data set to then unlock another lock. Therefore, all of the activities catered towards hands-on learning, inquiry based thinking, collaboration and problem solving. The activities also catered towards student-centered learning as the leader of the activity did not give much instruction and wanted us to investigate and think outside the box to solve all of the problems. The activity is also can incorporate differentiated instruction, and place students in ability grouping (some strong students, with weaker students) as for some groups you can give a modified box with less problems and more hints, or give another box to a group of stronger students with more difficult problems. Therefore, this activity is extremely adaptive, and flexible depending on your class. 

  

           This activity relates to the textbook we are currently reading in class for our online sessions “Thinking Mathematically.” By Mason, Burton & Stacey (2010). For example, in the chapter 4, the idea of conjecturing was introduced. Conjectures focus on learning from your mistakes, building on your prior knowledge and thinking creatively (Mason, Burton & Stacey, 2010). Where, these escape rooms unfolded the idea of conjectures in response to a lot of trial and error strategies were used, and thinking outside of the box to solve a copious amounts of different problems and trying to connect all of the puzzle pieces involved of escaping and finding the codes, passwords and unlocking locks. Additionally, referring to conjecturing as a cyclic process. When my group was solving the problems in the escape box, we followed a similar path of solving the problem one way, finding out that is was wrong, go back and change one step to get to the final answer. Lastly, the recommended steps were also followed for justifying and convincing any mathematical problem “Convince yourself, convince a friend, convince a skeptic” (Chapter 5, Mason, Burton & Stacey, 2010). While solving the problems this strategy was used as we were solving in groups and had to work with one another, and convince not only yourself but your group mates that you believe this is how the problem should be solved to arrive to the correct answer to then move onto the next part. 

References

Mason, J., Burton, L., & Stacey, K. (2010). Thinking mathematically. London ; Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

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